I only have the Canon HG20, which records to 60i, 30p, and 24p-via inverse telecine, and the Canon 7D which does PAL but takes forever and is fiddly to set up.

The 48 hour filmmaking contest I want to enter requires a PAL DVD as the final product.

What's the quickest way to do this? I'm thinking about ditching the 7D for the shoot, and just shooting as 30p and dropping it in a 25p timeline, but I'm sure there's a better way...

Shoot the 7D. It can shoot native 25, and it will be more filmic than the other camera. You will need to do something about sound, but if you were shooting the HG20, you would have to do same for it.

30 to 25 will be nasty conversion. If shooting 24p with the HG20, you could speed up playback to 25fps, without to much issue.

I'm not happy with the option of using the 7D, because the thing is so fiddly it takes forever to focus. The whole point of the 7D, to me, was having a camera that allows you to trade increased image quality for time. I think I would be better off taking a 30p stream, dumping it onto a 25p timeline, and living with the interlacing artifacting.

Just remember the 2 must do's,
Change your ruler in properties to 'Absolute frames'
And right click on your clip BEFORE you start cutting it up and click 'Disable Resample'.
It will be fine
and good luck with the contest :)

Thanks. I'm going to be one-man on this... Tauranga isn't known for it's vast film community, and I really haven't made any close friends yet. The only other option is flying into Wellington to be part of my friend's team, but I don't know if I'll have the money or the time.